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Water…

When Chris Brogan asked his readers to state their three guiding words for 2009, I offered water, fertilizer and sun. I was inspired by Beth Kanter and the effort she gave this task, so I’m going to break out three posts in succession, one for each word, to better focus my intent.

Water

If our goal is to keep a garden productive, watering strategies become paramount. Water from the earth, water diverted from a nearby stream, water from the sky, all these are different sources that can be tapped to accomplish the goal. Often times water is understood as a symbol of the unconscious, and likewise it can be in found at a variety of outlets.

From within the earth: I often sense that the messages that come through dreams are sourced from the deep wells of being, or as Jung would say, the collective unconscious. Often times this water makes it to the surface only to recede again if we do not do the work to translate the images into a format that will stick in consciousness. Getting our dreams down in a narrative format fixes them in a way that they can be useful and developed. It takes some work to keep attention directed to these images so they can be useful.

From other streams: often times we discover sustaining imagery from the life streams of others, whether that be in conversation, books or the digital trail many are blazing on social media platforms. Reading needs to remain a priority while working to be a content provider.

From the sky: I like to consider how synchronicity impacts my existence as the rain that falls from the sky. There’s no reason that a certain random post in twitter will be there and have a certain effect in my life when they do, but they do. Many farmers in arid climates will put rain barrels to catch rain coming off roofs…that’s how I think of using the hundreds of feeds that bring information to my reader each day.

To take the “from the sky” image it to an entirely different level, here’s the tale of the “Rainmaker” that Carl Jung loved to share (as found in The Earth has a Soul, ed. by Sabitini)

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Richard Reeve

Richard Reeve is a member of the development team at Panthera, a global wild cat conservation organization. Also, he sees clients in the Low Fee Referral Clinic at the C.G. Jung Institute of New York where he is in the last stage of training to become a Jungian psychoanalyst. He enjoys rural living with his wife Judith and their two children in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
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